The VRAz imaging tool is the latest addition to Visuray’s services that leverage the company’s unique Downhole X-Ray Platform. The VRAz tool is designed to address the challenge of assessing the integrity of production tubing in old wells. Current methods rely on mechanical, ultrasonic or electromagnetic methods to determine the remaining metal mass in production tubing. However, these measurements are invariably affected by scale accumulating inside the tubing and consequently fail to provide a reliable diagnosis.

For example, multi-finger calipers provide information about the inner surface of production tubing and are thus directly affected by scale. One type of electromagnetic diagnosis uses eddy current sensors to detect pits and holes on the inside of the tubing, but these measurements are also affected by scale and, like calipers, are blind to corrosion on the outside of the pipe. The technique also fails to respond to the full 360° azimuth of the tubing. A second type of electromagnetic diagnosis, using multifrequency solenoidal arrays, senses the presence of multiple tubings in the well, is less sensitive to scale, but has no azimuthal sensitivity. Estimates of metal loss depend on a complex analysis with poor reliablity.

The VRAz tool, by contrast, images through any present scale and can provide a direct geometrical measurement of the inside and outside diameters of the tubing with millimetric accuracy. Full 3D images are available. The tool is based upon well-proven VR90 technology, and the product is fast tracked to hit the market by the end of 2019.